How To Get Things Done When You Have No Time To Get Things Done

The title of this post is actually incorrect and I’ll explain why. The question of “how to get things done when you have no time to get things done” is usually a false presumption of lack of time at best.

The cold hard facts say we have 24 hours in a day to get all the things we need to get accomplished, done.

Yet, some of us get far more accomplished than others.

We have more time than we believe we have because we’re very good at wasting time or inviting distractions to waste our time unintentionally. So, in a sense, you’re usually stuck believing you have less time than you really do.

Let me show you 3 proven ways to save time and simply get more things done even if you feel like you’re already time strapped.

Not Fancy: But It’s My Journal

Keep A Journal

Journaling. This one is actually pretty new to me. However, I’ve been practicing a form of journaling for years without really knowing it.

So what is it? It’s simply the act of writing down what is trapped in your mind daily so you do not forget and allows for better mental clarity.

This can be things such as feelings and general thoughts to things that you’re looking to accomplish on a daily basis.

The few minutes you spend writing in the journal can save you hours of time later.

This saves you from wasting time by allowing quicker recall of whatever information you need.

How many times have you sat in front of your computer screen, notebook or work space and wondered what you needed to do next? With a journal, you’ve got that information at your fingertips.

I estimate that by keeping a journal I am able to save myself around 30-40 hours per month that could have been easily been wasted. If you start journaling you’ll no longer wonder how to get things done when you have no time because you’ll open up so much extra time for yourself.

Here’s how I use my journal for time management and to accomplish big things.

In the morning during my cup of coffee, I take 5-10 minutes and I write down anything I dreamed of, thought of immediately upon waking up and I state exactly what I am going to accomplish for the day.

I then work throughout the day to achieve everything that I stated I would accomplish.

At night, not long before bed, I write down in the same daily entry things that I accomplished, thoughts, feelings and then I list things that I want to accomplish the next day.

Yes, this means sometimes things get entered twice but this instills them into my brain even more. Upon waking the next day, my mind is pretty much made up of what I want to do and it makes a journal entry even easier to write.

Some of the greatest thinkers in history have journaled including guys like Edison and Tesla who accomplished world changing things. This would have been an impossible task without a journal.

If you ever want to dig a bit deeper into journaling check out this post on Medium.

Deep Work

Deep work is a term coined by Cal Newport and quite frankly if you’re not practicing it, you’re missing out on some big time savings.

Deep work can easily be summarized in the words of Mr. Newport as follows: “Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It’s a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time.”

I’ve discussed some of the things he delves into in the past but what he discusses and teaches is a “game changer” for those of us that live in a distracting world.

Deep work involves learning what is important and what is not and then how to direct your overall focus.

Deep work involves turning off all distractions but, more importantly, it involves being conscientiously aware of ourselves and what actually pulls us away from accomplishing the most important things of your life and where you’ll be ignoring the smaller things such as answering an email, checking Facebook or Twitter, reading texts messages etc.

When I need to get critical things, like creating a new blog post, working on a new course or building a new business I am constantly in Deep Work mode. I highly suggest practicing it and adapting it to your daily life.

Some things I constantly ask myself before I start my day is as follows:

What is the most important task I can do today?

What is the least important task?

Which will help me achieve my end goal faster?

Using my journal, I create a list of the most important task of the day to the least important task of the day. This process takes a total of 2 minutes but saves me so much time.

I then proceed to get the most important task done as early in the day as possible and I tackle the least important tasks near the end of the day or during a break point. I.e. if I need to answer a couple of emails I’ll do this on a break from deep work mode or during my down time.

Practice deep working and I am sure it’ll pay off for you.

Quit Complaining

We all have things in our lives that we don’t want to deal with. Some of us are more fortunate than others, some of us start with more money and some of us have outside problems that are difficult to deal with. These outside problems can be things like family issues, health, important obligations and so on.

But one of the biggest time drains is complaining to everyone about these problems.

First of all, constant complaining that life isn’t fair makes you look weak to everyone around you. Nobody wants to hear your daily complaints, nor has time for it. We all have enough problems going on in our lives as it is.

Now, don’t mistake asking for advice or sharing your troubles with someone as complaining. It’s sometimes beneficial to you and to your friends to have open discussions about your troubles. I am talking more about the constant whiner; same problem, new day, without attempting at resolve, type of person.

Secondly, it wastes so much time. It’s better to simply list your complaints in your own journal and then spend a few moments meditating on a resolution or praying about a resolution if you’re into prayer like I personally am.

That’s really all I have for this segment, but, because I’ve seen so much time wasted in complaints (and have personally wasted myself in the past) it’s something I had to mention. By removing complaints from my life, I have freed up enormous amounts of time that can be used for anything else.

Put Time Savings Into Practice

There are numerous other time-saving things that I didn’t discuss today but if you put the 3 previous things I mentioned into practice you’ll free up so much time for yourself you’ll be able to work on that business more or do great things for yourself and family that you never thought were possible.

Make a commitment to do these things and stick to them.

Hopefully once you start using these ideas you won’t wonder how to get things done when you have no time to get things done, because you’ll actually find that you do really have the time to accomplish your goals.

What about you? Do you have any time savings tips? Already practicing these things? Share with us and let’s discuss it today.

Share this post with anyone you think could use this advice today or share with anyone you already know that is amazing at getting things done.

Michael Brown

I'm Michael S. Brown, Internet Marketer, husband and father. I have been successful in business and marketing since 1998. In 2007 I took to the internet marketing world and have never looked back.
I love teaching people the knowledge that I have acquired and the ultimate boost to my ego is to see everyone I teach succeed in business. My goal is to make everyone who comes into contact with me as successful or even more successful than myself.

You have made more sense in fewer concepts than most online marketers I have studies over the years. Especially your values. “My goal is to make everyone who comes into contact with me as successful or even more successful than myself.” I second your concepts and am ready to learn from you.
Lloyd Dison, Sr

Michael,
This post is GOLDEN and hits the nail right on the head! I will admit that to a greater or lesser degree, EVERY section of your post fits me like a glove. I am printing off your post and will read it every day until I put it into practice!
Thank you for posting something of such VALUE in a sea of JUNK (on the web I mean).
Sincerely,
Roger

You’re welcome Roger 🙂 Trust me, these are things that I had to learn the hard way — you can change now and come out far more efficient than ever. I’m proud of the work you’ve been putting in Roger – keep it up! Let me know what you see happen in your life after a couple weeks of journaling…